Kev and Matt are joined by the other members of the mighty, mighty Team Scotland , Paul and Callum, to tell tall tales of our last round of the Social Distancing UB Tournament.

Will your hosts be the sad recipients of the wooden spoon? Can Kev keep the mino pain-train going? Can Matt, Paul and Callum keep up with the trail blazing Beast Herds? Find out in Episode 16.

In other news we discuss new lists post SD, Matt repeatedly mispronounces 'Porthos' as 'Pathos' - an unforgivable error that will cause his old English Language teacher to hunt him down like the worthless cur he is - and Callum bemoans the repointed UD helped by a 'couple' of ales.

So, Social Distancing was a great team event. It doesn’t compare to “real life” events because you lack the rush that comes from winning or losing for the team, as well as the quick succession of events: this was more of a slow burn, with a single round per week and games spread out. However, that had its upsides, too. You can actually see your teammates play the game, which offers an opportunity for improvement as you get critique post game from people who watched the entire battle as opposed to just a recount of events. Knowing the matchups and scenario/map beforehand meant that a decent amount of theorizing went on, which adds to the depth of the game: you cannot rely on surprising your opponent as much, and you expect him to have a coherent battle plan by the time you actually get to play the game.

Curiously enough, the social aspect was present in this event: through interactions via Discord I actually got to discuss more with the other teams than I would have during a 2-day event. Team USA and the TO @Sergrum have achieved something spectacular with this initiative, which is bringing T9A enthusiasts together to talk about the game and get to know each other in these weird times we live in.

So who won? Our team certainly didn’t, we ended up near the bottom (28/34) of the board after suffering yet another loss in the final round. But Belgium did win: the team Beer, Cheese and Surf, comprised of 3 Team Belgium current or former members and an Australian (now honorary Belgian, too!) beat all that stood before them and claimed the first place. Right behind them were the Germans and the Spanish, completing the podium in a multi-national way.

This field was one of the toughest I’ve ever faced, rivaling the ETC. So congrats are in order for all of the top finishers, for they truly showed they are the best in this game we so like to play! While our final placing isn’t what we had expected going in, we got 6 great rounds, meeting people from all over the world in the process. Shout out to my 7 opponents, they were all very fun to play with and very competent generals as well: Paul, Dave, Anton, Pablo, Justin, Mike and Marek, thanks a lot for making this quarantine easier to bear!

Before the list review, I’ll do a team review: we took a gamble going into the tournament, and that was to bring lists that we hadn’t had experience with. What we learned was that

Undying Dynasties cannot pull off the same plays as last year: large units with big footprints get swarmed by superior opposition and crumble away before the -lacking- magic phase can even begin to raise them and boost them. Another approach is needed in list building, and -after watching some UD games- I’d also point out that a book rewrite cannot come fast enough.

Tree spirit lists are good if they match the player’s demeanor. Our SE player has played so many games with the elven part of the army book, he’s gotten used to striking first and charging into combat instead of getting charged. I admit that I’d find playing a Tree Spirit list quite boring, and lacking in flair: not unlike a Dwarven Holds vanguard list, the trees lack the potential for late game counterplay if things do not go their way.

MSU Vampires. They either work beautifully, or they don’t. Having played a game with the list as a stand-in, I felt that one could accomplish the same thing with KoE, only better and without the risk of your army crumbling.

Overall we lacked the go-to armies for a 4-player event. These proved to be Daemonic Legion, Vermin Swarm, Highborn Elves and Warriors of the Dark Gods (the latter tied in 4th position with Vampire Covenant). This doesn’t come as a surprise, as these armies are highly reliable in terms of Leadership (yes, even Vermin!), with a good amount of Fearless troops, good fighting power/magic/speed, and able to play any scenario.

"But what about the Beasts?", I hear you say. If I had to sum it up, I’d say that the list exceeded expectations given the opposition. What I mean by this is that I brought a list based on infantry, vulnerable to psychology (way more than any of my previous lists) and with a good amount of points invested in discipline-based tricks (Aura of Madness, Hereditary, Whispers of the Veil, Terror). The opposition was in the vast majority comprised of armies immune to most of these effects. Where the opponents had good magic, high-performance shooting and overall a skewed/extreme list building approach, the March of the Jabberwocks army brought a minimal-investment magic phase, low-armour (and low-agility) infantry and very few traditional hard hitters.

Some of the entries I tried surprised me in a positive way, while others portrayed the shortcomings of such a take in BH listbuilding. But as a whole, the army always gave me ways to approach the game with the goal of winning. Full-combat beasts are not the army that will play for a draw or a… [Read More]

Matt and Kev are joined from across the Pond by our first American guest and professional Risk Analyst Nerocrossius to discuss his innovative and revolutionary approach to the Empire. Breathing new life into list optionsthat other just cast aside, the New Mexico Master Mind turns his focus upon, among others, the enigmatic Inquisitor and (Matt's favourites)the Flaggies. If you've ever wondered which units should be in your list, this might be the moment that changes everything...
In other news Kev decides to snipe Inquisitors on sight and Matt threatens to run 10k dressed as a Reiter.

That's right - we've only gone and talked the host of Ammertime onto the Paired Weapons Podcast! Kev and Matt are joined by T9a's most eligible bachelor and man-about-Ninth-Age to talk Highborn Elves, Moldovan Wine and the works of John Constable.
In other news, Kev offers to take Matt to a Heavy Metal Concert, Matt waxes lyrical about the Romantic Art Movement and much man love abounds!

On this week's show we are joined by the one and only Adam 'Tanka' Jones, of England ETC fame, who chats with us about MSU, list building and why SA should be considered a top tier army. Grab a beer and some paint and join us - WARNING: may contain penis jokes.

So for the last game of the tournament we got to play Team K. , which brought together players from Poland and the Czech Republic. They had brought Barbarian-heavy Warriors of the Dark Gods, MSUDH, MSUKoE and Mercenary-heavy Ogre Khans. My opponent would be Marek, a UB regular and ETC player for the Czech Republic. We’ve played games before, and they are always challenging and fun. He had brought a list that I found interesting and with a lot of potential:

So a full MSUKoE list supported by a PegasusDuke and a solid unit of Grail knights. Looking at the list, the first thing I noticed was the lack of musicians on the small knight units: while this is understandable as it would cost a lot of points just to put musicians on these, I figured I’d be able to exploit it to force favorable combats and take the small units apart using my ambushers and fliers.

The main threat in the list was of course the Questing Pegasus lord that could effectively zone my Jabberwocks and could potentially killany of my characters if in a combined charge with the grails or the Pegasus knights. We would get to play Secure Target and Counterthrust, meaning that our armies would be even closer together.

I expected the cavalry to be upon me by turn 2, so I decided that I’d have to use the objectives to split the knights’ forces, hopefully isolating scoring units with low discipline from the main leadership bubble; that would allow my jabberwocks to overwhelm them, leaving my ambushers free to claim the objective. My opponent won the roll of sides, and picked the side with a sizeable hill inside the deployment zone. It was clear that the Pegasus block or the Grail unit would sit atop this and threaten long charges on my units, so instead of dropping for the first turn (which I wasn’t that keen on having, anyway) I opted for alternate drops.

We had this back-and-forth for a while, and in the end we ended up with a heavily weighed left flank for the KoE, against a powerful center with the “weak side” protected by the building. The Jabberwocks were both near the impassable terrain pieces, hoping to exploit any blind spots and put the pressure on the knights’ advance early on. I won the roll for the turn and opted to play second: this might seem odd, but the unit placement meant that I’d have to use my chaff early on if I wanted to push, while the KoE would get to keep theirs for later during the game. By giving my opponent the first turn I’d force him to use his redirectors, while also retaining the possibility for late-game objective claiming. (picture taken after my opponent's deployment, expertly edited to give you an idea of how the KoE deployed: the Realm Knights were actually more to the side, see red cross next to impassable)

The Grail Knights opened the game by trying the double 6 charge into my feral hounds, with an overrun into the Longhorns (and barely out of the Wildhorns’ arc). Although casualties would have been tremendous, I figured the risk was relatively low. The Grails failed and moved upon the hill with their failed charge move. The Yeomen advanced, blocking my Feral Hounds (and Longhorns right behind). The rest of the movement was overall a cautious advance up the left flank, with a notable yeoman/aspirant alignment that prevented my Jabberwock from charging the knights.

With part of my battleline blocked, I decided that stalling in the middle and left flank was not a bad idea. The weak part of the enemy formation was the right flank (only a single unit of Aspirants) and the… [Read More]

After 3 consecutive team losses, we still wouldn’t get to face a “weak” team, but we had the pleasure of facing team “Little Giants”.Justin @Kaedo and his mates are experienced T9A generals and tournament generals in the mid-Atlantic region (I think?) of the USA. They had lined up a triple-krakenDE army, MSU shooty DH,WildheartOK and, finally, a skinkstar Saurian Ancients army.

“How would one define a skinkstar?”, I hear you ask: take your basic skink unit. Give it Hatred. Give it Poison. Then add 4 heroes with assorted equipment and you’ve got a skinkstar. If your next question was “And what does a skinkstar do?” then you’re reading the right blogpost.

My round 5 opponent would be Justin, of team USA fame,and his highly unusual SA army.

So the aforementioned skink star was accompanied by a second hard-hitting block, plus all kinds of support units and monsters. This time the deployment would be Frontline Clash and the secondary objective Spoils of War.

I took some time before the game to read up on the SA rules (I don’t get to fight them often), and to find out exactly what a Skink Captain can do. It turns out that if he’s equipped right, he can be downright scary! After some thinking I came to the conclusion that I could probably take on the SkinkStar in two waves, but there was practically nothing in my army that would appreciate going toe-to-toe with the Saurian Warrior unit. So plan was to scare these sufficiently so that they do not barrel down my lines, while trying to get the satellite units and claim the objective.

Justin then dropped his army for the first turn, and went for all 3 tokens using his cavalry units in the flanks, the Saurian Warriors in the middle and theSkink Star, Taurosaur and Stygiosaur ready to support either side.

This left me free to counter the deployment: I kept my chariots and a Jabberwock on the hill, projecting a decent threat range and giving the Saurian scorers something to think about before the stepped on the objectives on turn 1. After a bit of consideration, I elected to play the Wildhorns and Razortusks to the far right, where they’d get to bully the Stygiosaur and the cavalry in the early game, then hopefully combine charges into the skink star. The left flank would be handled by my second Jabberwock along with the unit of Mongrels. Finally, the Longhorns went across the Saurian Warriors and the Taurosaur; their intention was to look menacing enough so as to dissuade an aggressive move. In reality, they’d have to flee a Saurian Warrior charge if it came to that.

The saurian army moved up rather cautiously, close enough to the objective tokes to dissuade me from making the move to grab them, but still long enough so as to not give my units on the hill any good charges.

In the magic phase the Swarm of Insects went through on the Feral Hounds, killing 3 of them. The Beastlord kept the dogs from panicking, and then I managed to dispel the Spark of Creation against the Raiding Chariots.

The salamander tried to fry my two remaining hounds, but rolled a “1” and took a wound instead. Two javelins from the skink heroes also missed their mark, leaving the redirectors alive -a very rare occurrence!

Hello all! It’s been a while and we’ve been in lockdown but we’ve finally gotten an episode ready for you. Packed full of new content; what’s stopping you from getting stuck into your latest hobby project listening to us two rambling on for an hour and a bit?!